CVS Health chief executive officer Karen S. Lynch speaks Monday, Dec. 4th at Jazz at Lincoln Center ... [+]
CVS Health is rebranding its health services segment under a new name, “CVS Healthspire,” as the company expands deeper into the provision of medical care.
Under CVS chief executive officer Karen S. Lynch, the giant drugstore chain in the last year alone has spent nearly $20 billion adding senior primary care centers via its $10.6 billion acquisition of Oak Street Health and $8 billion on a homecare company, Signify Health.
To help “demonstrate the connection and convenience CVS Health uniquely delivers,” Lynch said Monday evening at the annual Forbes Healthcare Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York that the company has created the CVS Healthspire name for the company’s health services segment that includes: Oak Street; Signify; more than 1,100 MinuteClinics; Caremark pharmacy benefit manager (PBM); and the newly created Cordavis, a new company that is working directly with drug makers to produce and commercialize “biosimilar” drugs, the less expensive versions of expensive brand prescriptions derived from biotechnology.
“The groups within CVS Healthspire will continue to focus on integration across the company’s assets to deliver connected patient care, pharmacy benefits and innovative provider support solutions in communities across the country, making expert care simple, more accessible, and more affordable,” CVS said in a statement.
CVS, which also owns the health insurer Aetna, is the latest healthcare company to organize its healthcare services under segments separate from the health plan operations. CVS’ Aetna is the nation’s third largest health insurance company with more than 25 million health plan members.
UnitedHealth Group, for example, has its UnitedHealthcare health insurance unit and Optum, which includes healthcare services such as its medical care providers and its PBM, OptumRx. And earlier this year, Cigna adjusted its brands by naming the three “distinct brands” that includes The Cigna Group; Cigna Healthcare, the health benefits provider; and Evernorth Health Services, “the pharmacy, care and benefits solutions provider, the company said in February. And last year, Elevance Health, formerly Anthem, and the the new name of “Carelon” for its healthcare services and the return of “Wellpoint” for certain government-subsidized health insurance products.
In CVS Health’s case, executives said the CVS Healthspire brand reflects the “trust, familiarity and community access” of the CVS brand while bringing together the company’s care delivery, pharmacy and health services. The CVS Healthspire brand will begin a public rollout this month and into 2024 with consumers seeing select digital and physical healthcare assets as “part of CVS Healthspire.”
”Consumers are demanding what they experience at every other aspect of their life,” Lynch told attendees at the Forbes Healthcare Summit Monday evening. “They have high expectations of what healthcare is.”
